Melodrama
by poetic licence
Summary: Part 14 - Monochrome Series. Written directly after the relationship comes to light in front of the entire school, an outsider reflects on why noone noticed the relationship. A conversation with Harry ensures. For Reena. Harry/Draco


**Melodrama**

– for Reena, in honour of setting myself up –

The day the 'news' broke of their relationship was one of the most nail-biting days of my life.

With that public, historical and somewhat scandalous 'first kiss' in the middle of the Great Hall as breakfast, they caused a huge sensation.

It was rumoured that the Gryffindors had found them in bed together, albeit any clothes to speak of, but I found it very hard to believe that Draco was going down on Harry at the time of discovery. For one, Ron Weasley would have had a total overload and blown up, taking the entire room and all its occupants along for the ride.

It was like Chinese Whispers down the entire table at breakfast, _this_ was rumour, _this_ was fact, and _this_ was something else all together. My head reeled.

Me? I watched both of them, like most of the school was doing at this very moment. Draco looked shaken, maybe from the confrontation in Harry's dorm that I, myself probably heard in my own bed at 7:08am this very Wednesday morning.

Ginny thumped down next to me, her bright hair aflame, and reached for a slice of bread, buttering it enthusiastically, a smile playing on the edges of her lips.

"Can you honestly believe it, Gin?" I asked her distractedly, my eyes still trained on Harry, who was astutely ignoring everyone bar Hermione. "I wonder if the blow job rumour is true."

"Highly probably. After all, they have been going out at least for six months."

"_Six months_?" Anyone within hearing distance of Ginny all gapped at her.

"You know?" I gasped.

"Sure. Caught them kissing in a classroom over Christmas and was sworn to secrecy. They told Hermione and Pansy on my insistence. It's no biggie." she looked over to Harry fondly, before the smile fell over her face with a snap. "Oh, no. McGonagall."

"Poor Harry." I whispered, as we both watched the stern faced Deputy Headmistress march over to Harry and speak sharply to him. He stood shakily and trailed after her like a forlorn puppy who just got caught next to a spreading puddle on the floor, despite every one of his best intentions.

"Snape's got Malfoy." a voice hissed down to us, all eyes swerving to see the bowed blonde head, matched with a steely expression, one half step behind the Potions Master. Everyone exchanged looks.

We all went back to our breakfasts. It was out of our hands now.

~~ ~~~ ~~

I saw Harry sometime later, I was in the library, wadding my way through a rather nasty History of Magic essay, the sixth years mingling with the fifth years, whispering between scattered groups. I was leafing through a rather thick volume to do with the Elf wars in the Middle Ages when he slumped in.

"Harry!" I hissed, waving him over discreetly. He spotted me and slumped down next to me, burying his face in his hands. "Have you been with Professor McGonagall all this time?"

He nodded. "She's been lecturing me on the appropriateness of Inter-House relationships, house pride, homosexuality, the school rule that '_clearly states that students are not allowed to sleep in any bed except their own, especially when foresaid bed in already occupied_', and--" he gulped visibly, lowering his tone so much that I could barely hear it. "--underage sex."

I winced in sympathy.

"I've never been so embarrassed in my entire life." His cheeks burned with the memory. "_Then_ she took 50 house points for letting Draco into the Gryffindor tower and assigned me a weeks worth of detention for breaking a total of five school rules and told me she was highly disappointed in both my sense of pride and house spirit."

"It hasn't been a good day for you, has it Harry?"

"Understatement." he growled.

I paused for reflection slightly, before smiling. "Well, you are 'sleeping with the enemy', Harry."

He gave me the evil eye. "You're the third person who's said that to me today and it's _not_ getting any funnier."

I sniggered. "Ginny told me at breakfast that she already knew."

"Yes, she did." he sighed, leaning his elbows on the table. "Everything's such a mess."

I leaned over and squeezed one of the sharp bones in his elbow reassuringly. "Hey, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always around."

"Thanks. But I really need to find Draco to make sure everything went okay with Snape."

A shadow fell across us and there was a whoosh of displaced air and Hermione slid into the seat next to Harry.

"There you are!" she exclaimed. "Did you only just get back from Professor McGonagall, Harry?"

"Yep. I actually came in here looking for you, mainly to see how Ron was doing."

"Still fuming. When last I saw him he was being led firmly away by the elbow by Seamus in the direction of the Infirmary and Madam Pomfrey's Calming Mixture to steady his nerves."

"Oh hell," moaned Harry. "And everyone else?"

"Shocked, but making the most of the rumour mill and the PR. We haven't had a decent scandal to work with since that fifth year Hufflepuff love-triangle incident."

We all laughed softly, seeing the funny side of this rather sombre situation.

"Where's Draco?" he quietly asked, his face softening dramatically.

"Ah, that's why I came to find you in the first place. Pansy told me to tell you that he was going to go down by your spot near the lake--" Harry nodded. "--and she seemed rather amused by the whole thing."

"Why's that?" he queried. 

"I think it may have been his mortification at having a sex education talk with Snape."

We pulled three identical faces of disgust at the unwanted imagery.

"Right, I'd better get going then. You want to walk down with me, Herm?" Harry looked down at the bushy haired witch expectantly.

"I'm sorry, but I can't Harry. I have to go see Hannah Abbott about the scheduling for the next Prefect meeting." she stood uncertainly, conflict written on her face. "And then I'm going to go talk some sense into Ron. He needs to be told and right now, I don't think he'd let you within five feet of him."

"Probably not." he assented.

"Good luck." I added.

Hermione glanced at me sagely as she stood up. "Oh, I doubt I'll need it, but thanks anyway. If Ron won't listen to reason, I'll just use my fists." And with that she was gone, in a whirl of uniform and intelligence.

Harry shook his head, rising himself.

"Hey, is the walk an open offer?" I asked, Harry looking at me calmly. "It's just--" I shrugged at my textbooks hopelessly. "I could use a break if you wanted the company."

He smiled, grateful. "That'd be good."

I packed up my notes and scrolls, shoving them back into my bag. We walked most of the way out of the school in silence, Harry out of sheer discomfort at all the stares and whispers that could be heard with our progress through the halls, me out of sympathy. I recognised the delicacy of the situation and was not about to rock him out of his comfort zone too quickly.

Harry didn't relax until we walked out of the huge double doors at the front of the school, his stepped lessening and stride becoming less clipped.

"So," I began, looking over to him serenely. "Draco Malfoy?"

"Yep, Draco Malfoy." A sigh.

"Ginny told me it's been going on awhile." Matter of fact.

"Seven months, give or take." Quiet.

I look at him out from under my half-closed eyelids. "And you didn't say anything?"

"What would I have said? What _could I have said_? Hi, I'm Harry Potter and I'm in a relationship with my worst enemy?" Incredulous, exasperated.

"Keeping it a secret is better, then?" Calm.

"It worked fine." Scuffling feet against the green grass and stones.

A pause. "Does he make you happy?"

Harry stopped, staring at me for a moment as if he'd never seen me before in his life. I could almost see the wheels turning in his mind. "Does he make me happy? God, there's the million galleon question," he nibbled on his bottom lip, thinking, our pace slow and steady across the grounds. "The short answer is…mostly no and partly yes."

I raised my eyebrows, confused.

"No, because of his uppity attitudes and sarcastic nature. No, because he has all these opinions and ideas and he can't see that there is such a thing as give and take, not just taking. No, because he plain out drives me up the wall sometimes and has me tied up in knots, tap-dancing on the ceiling. Most of the time I just want to throttle his scrawny little neck and get him the hell out of my life once and for all!" Harry sighed deeply. "But then it's yes, because of the way his sweetness is over-run by his sarcasm and he ends up getting all tripped up over his own words. It's yes because of the way he makes me laugh when I'm being too serious. Yes, because he understands me better than I understand myself at time. Yes, because he's the only one who doesn't want me just because I'm the Boy Who Lived."

I screeched to a halt. "Wait a minute, you can't be serious, can you?"

"It's true." He continued walking and I had to jog to catch up to his long stride.

"No it isn't!" I cried out, startled at my own reaction.

"Yes, it is," Harry paused, looking at me sadly for a moment. "But when I'm with Draco, he makes me forget all of that, he makes me forget everything. And that's enough right now, it's enough for me."

I shook my head for a minute, thinking about what it must be like for Harry, to be the good guy all of the time, to be the hero, the one that everyone looks to for answers. _But who gives Harry the answers when he has questions?_ I asked myself.

"So you found your rebellious streak in Draco Malfoy."

Credit is where credits due, Harry didn't baulk from my straight-forwardness. "In a way, yes."

I smiled. "Then I'm happy for you."

"Really?" his tone happy, the lake approaching with rapidity that I hadn't been prepared for.

"Even though I really can't understand what you see in him, if he makes you happy, then he's the best person for you to be with." _Definitely_.

"As apposed to?"

"Whoever. If he's what you want, if he can give you what you need, then that's fantastic," I paused. "It takes a lot of guts to hold out against what other people think for you one you want."

Harry shrugged, a smile on his lips. "Well, I _am_ a Gryffindor."

A flash of white blonde came into view and Harry smiled broadly. I took in the sight of that slight, slender back, the hair brushed neatly into place.

"I'll leave you here, Harry." I assented, realising that I had no place being here now, that it was better to walk away while I still had the chance.

He turned to me. "Thankyou for understanding."

"I don't, really," I told him. "But acceptance isn't the same as understanding."

He frowned, not getting my point.

"Never mind," I told him, wistfully. "Goodbye, Harry. And good luck."

"Thank you," He whispered, as he brushed his cool lips to my cheek. "Bye."

And as I walked away, I thought back to Harry's awkward, gangly days; where even the slightest touch could make him melt and froth and chuckle. Where every opposition fell as if the very strength of his soul could make them do his bidding, his strength of will and heart brooking no consequence. I thought back to the days where a smile could warm a heart, make it flutter and ache like a leaf on the breeze of many yesterday's and wondered where all the time had gone.

Two weeks and I would be gone from this place forever. No longer a Hogwarts student, no longer an inmate of the dorm room and common room and class room.

So many rooms and not one of them would ever remember Cho, because like time, memories fade away.

- finished -

**Amy's Notes:**

I'll bet this one had you guessing! As the longest piece (at just over 2,000 words) I found that the dialogue was necessary, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get the full effect. I wrote this for several reasons: firstly, to appease Reena, who told me that I had really set my self up by making my characters so observant, even though it was almost completely necessary of the angle the series was covering. I had to make all my characters super observant, otherwise they would all fall to pieces. I realised she was right, and set about correcting the issue to mixed success. 

I actually started this piece in the middle of writing Part 10, and now sits very comfortably at Part 14 - which is a shock to the system. I'm so used to knocking these things out one at a time that it's rather hard working my way around the fact that this one has been hanging around my desktop for far too long. But, it's done now, so I can stop worrying about it.

The other reason I did this piece was also to cover the students reaction to Harry and Draco suddenly coming out - which has been a point of much discussion between Sheron and myself - well debated out but not covered in the slightest. So, Sheron, I hope your pleased with yourself.

**Thanks:**

Firstly, to all the gang at Monochrome Shadows – you all know who you are.  To everyone at livejournal, for putting up with me.  And to all my reviewers:

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